Wednesday, July 6, 2016

It's no secret that I've become a huge fan of paper piecing since the very first stitch... but what I'm not a big fan of is the amount of seemingly still good and usable scraps that can be produced throughout the process.

I really wish that I could make grandiose claims of being a good little quilter that usesevery last little delicious bit, scrap, and snippit that one creates when cutting up fabric only to sew it back together again... but I have to admit that large amounts of scraps overwhelm me, and in a big way! No worries, I don't throw away every little snippit that happens to fall to the floor, but the reality of it is that if it's too small then it lands in the trash before it lands in the scrap bin.

After finishing a few of my bee blocks, I realized that I had too many great scraps to just scrap (pun intended!) So, I decided that it was time for me to try out an improv project. I made up several long, wonky half square triangles and played around with a few design layouts.

This is the design that I finally settled on, and I kind of like how it's come together. It's not a highly improv piece, but improv enough for me. I have a few more projects and techniques to get out of my system first before I jump in with both feet.

How do you use your leftover bits and pieces? Do you save every little scrap or are you able to let the teeny tidbits go?

15 comments:

God I wish I knew how to use every tiny scrap. I am concious of every triangle scrap I produce when I do HSTs. Currently I am debating if I just should throw them out or find a project for tiny triangles. Your block came together nicely. It has a good feel of movement to it. =)

Great use of scraps - it looks really lovely and those fabric are just too great to waste. I keep everything ... well almost everything!! Now I know our council does roadside recycling of any textile scraps I don't feel so bad about letting the really little ones go but anything that will give me a 1.5" square stays!!

I adore those triangles! I would just bind that baby and hang it on my wall. Beautiful!I keep almost every little scrap. I don't usually keep flannel because I don't work with it that much and if something has been stretched or is out of sorts in some way then I toss it, but everything else goes in my scrap bin. I just love making full, true scrap quilts. They are probably my favorite.

I used to save every little piece, but have since realised that there is no way I will ever use half of them in my lifetime. I am a lot more ruthless now and generally throw them out if they are smaller than 2". Still have an awful lot though.

The arrangement has a nice sense of balance, which makes it restful, along with the amount of white. A very good piece of work.I don't save selveges or skinny pieces and am not a fan of tiny blocks for myself. I can't do hand work any more. Besides, it seems every project just generates more scraps. I don't need them all, 2-1/2 is my favorite width.

I love what you've made. It would make a great pillow! I save anything bigger than 2 inches. I feel like I should be saving trimming too, to use as stuffing, but I am so short on space in my home, for now I have to let them go.

Nice use of your scraps! I'm not a paper piecer (in fact I sort of despise it but have made a few paper pieced quilts). Yes, I'm a scrap saver and user and if the scrap piece is less than an inch I use it as mulch in the garden! The pieces larger than an inch always make good kid sized donation quilts.